Description

Welcome to ‘Eagle Island’!

Mull is indeed a fantastic island and a paradise for wildlife and nature lovers. The varied habitats provide wonderful wild scenery including rugged high mountains, endless moorland, forests, dramatic cliffs and 300 miles of unspoilt coastline. So, if its eagles you want, this is the place to be!

There are good numbers of the gargantuan White-tailed Eagle here and even more majestic Golden Eagles to marvel at in the skies above. Mull is also home to a wide variety of other raptors including Hen Harrier, Short-eared Owl, Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Merlin and there are also Buzzards galore! On top of this, we can also expect to see Red and Fallow Deer, Common Seal and hopefully Bottle-nosed Dolphin. Mull is also rightly known as being just about the best place in Britain to see Otter and we will hopefully enjoy seeing them too during our stay on the island.

Leaving Eastwood by people carrier at 8am, we drive north of the border to Oban for the early evening ferry across the Firth of Lorn to Mull, arriving in time for dinner at The Isle of Mull Hotel. This three star hotel with en-suite rooms overlooking gardens, Craignure Bay and the Sound of Mull, has a gym, sauna, swimming pool, outdoor hot tub with the possibility of roding Woodcock and hunting Hen Harriers in the grounds!

During our five night stay we shall explore the island at a leisurely pace, and in spite of the rugged terrain, we shall enjoy the scenery and wildlife on a number of fairly easy level walks. In addition to the raptor fest, we can hope to see other exciting birds like Eider, Red-Breasted Merganser, Arctic Tern, Black Guillemot, Rock Pipit, Ring Ouzel, Whinchat, Dipper, Crossbill, Twite, Hooded Crow, Raven and maybe a lingering Great Northern Diver in magnificent summer plumage. During the week, we shall also visit the small island of Iona, with its early Christian abbey founded by Saint Columba, where we hope to pinpoint one of the breeding Corncrakes. On a previous visit we had a full length view of a calling bird!

There will also be a day trip to the Treshnish Isles where the seabird colonies provide close encounters with Shags, Razorbills, Guillemots, and of course, Puffins. During this cruise we shall also visit Fingal’s Cave on the isle of Staffa, and maybe we will be lucky enough to see Gannets, plus Skuas, Petrels, Shearwaters and even a Basking Shark.